things to remember

One day in Mid-January on Grocery Shopping Day, around 4:30 in the afternoon, I realised we needed to go and get some chicken breast in bulk. So off we toodled.. On arrival back home, I noticed some rubbish in the street. This is not unusual for where we live, unfortunately. We have one set of neighbours who seem to think it is totally fine to leave stuff on their verge for random folk to collect any time, and wind blows it across to our side of the street. But something about this rubbish seemed odd to me, so I went to check.

On looking at it, I discovered it was stuff most folks would keep in the glovebox of their car. Rego papers, car purchase paperwork, receipts from hotels and shops, a temporary frequent flyer card. It all had the same name on it.

We’re normally “don’t get involved” people. However on the 26th of December 2017 there was a big crash down our way. You may have heard about it, because one of the people involved was once on Home and Away. If not, this article has some info.

A few weeks before that, we had driven down to Ulladulla. On our way back we saw some very bad driving from a white Pajero with P plates on it. But we see a lot of bad driving on the roads, and what can you do? Not much, really. I will never know now if this was the same guy or not, our footage overwrites the old footage and by the time this crash happened it was gone.

The guy who ran into this lovely family and murdered them all – plus himself – was driving a white Pajero with P plates. He had a terrible driving history and had been disqualified from driving and even jailed for driving while disqualified. They believe he was returning from the methadone clinic when he crossed to the wrong side of the road. I can’t help thinking all those what if thoughts. What if I’d taken that footage to the police? Would it have made a difference?

So when I saw all this paperwork, I said to the other half, I’m going to go collect it all up and put it into a plastic bag because I would not want that stuff out there in the street if it were mine, and while I do that can you check the CCTV cameras and see when this stuff appeared here?

How do you do that, I hear you asking. We’ve done it before many times, but here is a quick rundown on logistics. I’ll give you our stolen bin example. First, you want to find the item on camera both in daytime and at night time – because things look different at night when it switches to infra-red. Then you check the camera at 10pm – bin still there? 11pm – bin still there? Midnight – bin still there? 1am = bin gone. Ok, lets go back to midnight then fast forward through this hour and find where the bin theft happens.

It turned out the paperwork had arrived just after 8:30 in the morning. There was a guy walking up the street, then a car comes into frame. He tells it where to park, which is right out the front of our house. The front passenger gets out, and he and the street guy go take a pee against our fence. Their faces are clearly caught on camera.

The driver of the vehicle appears to be looking through the car. The front seat passenger finishes his pee and gets back in the car. The street guy finishes his pee and gets into the rear of the vehicle. Just before the vehicle leaves, the front door opens, and all the papers are shoved out of the vehicle by the front seat passenger.

None of this seems like normal behaviour of a car owner to me, so I am now assuming this car has been stolen. And stupidly one of the papers they threw out had the car rego, so I get on the phone to the police. I give the call centre operator the rego, and she suddenly gets very excited. Can we send someone around to collect the footage, she says. Of course you can.

I type the name on the paperwork into The Google And Tubes, and the first person with that name who pops up happens to work behind the scenes in television for one of our major tv networks. Oh, that can’t be the guy, says me. I find a few others with the same name. I wait for the police. Nobody arrives. We have to put off grocery shopping because we can’t leave until they get here. Time passes, and passes.

I do a little more searching and find a Facebook Profile. This guy with the same name I see on the paperwork seems just like us, he likes planes, and Star Wars. But I am not sure about contacting anyone. What am I going to say? Around 10:30 I figure the police are not going to show up and it is time to take matters into my own hands, so I send a message to Star Wars Facebook Guy. Are you the (name) whose (vehicle name) was stolen today?

The answer comes back almost right away. Yes, that is me. How do you know that? I suddenly have a lot of explaining to do. I let him know I have all his paperwork, and am waiting for the police to come and get it, and that we have the car thieves on CCTV. He lets me know he is down on the South Coast on holidays and the car was stolen sometime overnight.

We chat for about 20 minutes, about this and about other things, it turns out he *is* the guy who works behind the scenes in television and eventually he says he is going back up to Sydney tomorrow and if the police don’t get the paperwork would we mind if he stops in and grabs it. He has a friend who is going to take him back to Sydney. I go and talk to The Other Half – who is a bit more concerned with this concept, but I talk him round, and I suggest to Star Wars Facebook Guy that they drop in for coffee the next morning.

We did not get very much sleep that night. First of all, every noise we heard had us checking the cameras. Secondly, I had a lot of thoughts going through my mind. One of them was.. if this was our car, I might find it difficult to watch this footage. We are people very attached to our cars. Some people aren’t, and that is fine, but we sure are. Another of them was, this walking down the street guy must live around here. That is a disturbing thought.

Bright and early the next morning, Star Wars Facebook Guy and his friend arrive. I check in with him and say hey, I have realised this footage might be a bit upsetting to watch, are you sure you want to see this? He says yes, so into the computer room we all troop, and watch the footage several times from different angles. On rewatching, we could see that these guys were not at all worried about fingerprints, and that made me think this car would be found burned out somewhere. That happens quite a lot these days, sadly.

Then we spend the next two hours chatting and drinking coffee. It turns out this guy has been at almost every major event of significance to happen in Australia for some years now. Any event I can think of and name, he was there. Everything from fires to floods to political happenings to royal tours. He was completely fascinating, and his friend was just as much so. We are now friends on the Facebook and I hope we will get to meet up again sometime.

The police arrived a couple of hours later, viewed the footage and were provided with a copy of their own. The truth about our local police is they have a large area to cover, they are so overworked and have so much to do, and then when things go to court the judges do not really hold criminals accountable for their actions. I think that needs to change.

A bit of time passed. One day I got a Facebook notification that Star Wars Facebook Guy had sent me a photo. As I feared, his car was found burned out. He’d gone to see it and taken some photos. The car was used in an armed robbery then set alight.

So why am I telling you this story. I debated whether or not I should, as this one is not really my story to tell. There are two reasons –

1. I want to remember this many years from now, so I am writing it down.

2. I want to make the point that sometimes getting involved in someone else’s business is the right thing to do. It actually can turn out to be a great thing if we are brave enough to step up. Sometimes picking up some rubbish in the street might save someone else a lot of heartache – that paperwork had all the information I needed to steal the identity of Star Wars Facebook Guy.

The spot where the accident happened now has been upgraded with guard rails to protect those on the other side of the road, and the NSW police are initiating Strike Force Puma as a result of this accident. They are now specifically requesting dashcam footage –

“We need the assistance of the public and we want anyone on the road who witnesses dangerous and menacing driving, such as overtaking several cars across double unbroken lines and narrowly avoiding other vehicles, or has footage of it to contact local police or Crime Stoppers,” Assistant Commissioner Corboy said.

We both have dash cams in our cars though mine is a bit less technically capable than the camera in the other car, which also captures a rear view. We will be submitting footage as requested, if we get any worth sending. We all have to live in this world and drive on these roads and people have to realise there may be consequences for bad behaviour even if they cannot see a police car nearby, as this nearby driver found out recently.

I would like to wish all my readers a fabulous, happy, productive, awesome and wonderful New Year. Thank you so much for reading, for commenting, for writing your own blogs which I greatly enjoy. I am so glad I met each and every one of you. :)

If you read this blog and you’re not sure if I read your blog, please leave a comment with a link – or contact me privately – because I want to read all the blogs of my readers

A Quick Apology

I usually reply to comments left here on the blog but the past couple of weeks I have been feeling Not Great. I think a combination of losing Red Comb, plus hay fever allergies have kicked in big time. I have also been absent from the comment sections of other blogs. It is not you, it is me.

I’m starting to get my go back and spent some time yesterday going back through the comments, leaving replies. I hope to get back to your comment sections more regularly in the new year. ;)

Where Do People Come From?

Here is the top ten list of countries people who view my blog originate from –

Top 5 Scam Posts Of 2015

The scam posts got a lot of views this year, so I’ve put them in their own category. All together, over 50,000 people viewed those posts – thousands of people found out these jobs were scams thanks to these posts.

My Favourite Search Terms For 2015 –

millers old ladies cardigans – Leads you to this post – Millers Knits.

snoscred – Nope, you’re doing it wrong. And yet, you still end up here! Though I can’t seem to replicate this on search engines at all. Also found – snoksred – snoskret – sonskred – nosskred – onskreds.

females in thigh boots swordfighting with men videos – This will lead you to The Pirate Movie post.

My Favourite Search Questions For 2015 –

can spiders live in your septic tank – Yes but why would they want to? There is not a lot of spider food to be found there. They prefer other kinds of environments, in general. Like my ceiling cornices!

what are the “regular movies” with the most graphic male frontal nudity in them? – And this search results in Abu Dhabi Doo – don’t worry, there are no nude images there. :)

what does morten harket really look like nude? – I’m going with almost identical to how he looks in his bathing suit, except with added dangly bits. Just a guess, but I think I’d be right..

how to entertain a lion – With great care, I would suggest.

how to bait and kill a red belly black snake – This search term always gets a lot of people arriving here on my blog. Don’t bait or kill a snake, read this instead. People get killed trying to kill snakes. If you value your life, don’t try it!

Top Ten Viewed Posts Not Written In 2015

To finish this post off, every year some of my old posts get almost as many views as the new posts. Here are the top 10 viewed posts which were not written in 2015.

Otherwise known in our household as “red sauce pasta” or even “awesome sauce”. I’ve mentioned it in the Fake Lasagne post but I have never posted how I make it here on the blog..

Over the years, I’ve made this sauce many different ways, chopping up the various vegetables and so forth. My most recent version involves blending carrot and zucchini in the blender and this makes the sauce extra awesome in my opinion, plus, it is a lot simpler vegetable preparation wise. I’m making it in quite large batches so I can make 3x dinners and 3-4 lunches out of one very large pot of sauce.

I don’t have a strict recipe or amounts, but here is what I usually put in it when making the large batch – I’ve put notes in for how much I use when making a smaller batch.

2 red capsicum (pepper) chopped – sweat this for 5-10 minutes in olive oil then remove from pan. (Use 1 if making a small batch)

1kg mince – you can choose what kind of mince you prefer. I like beef and chicken or just beef. I place this in the pan, break it up, then cover with red wine plus a dash of white wine, then put on the lid and allow it to simmer well for 15 minutes. If you have used chicken mince you will find it takes on the colour of the red wine via this method. (500g for small batch)

Add back in the capsicum, leek and onions. Stir well.

Add in 4-5 large carrots and 3 small zucchini – this I puree well in the blender, but if you prefer it chopped you can do it that way. I just peel the carrots and chop them and the zucchini into large chunks and add a little water to make blending easier but if you don’t mind the skins on the carrots, that is your option and you can skip the peeling step.. 2 carrots, 1 small zucchini for small batch.

You can also add other vegetables if you like – me personally I would add mushrooms and olives but the other half does not like them, so I tend to add those in when I am reheating a small serve of sauce for myself.

I find the puree adds extra awesomeness to the sauce. Stir well and allow all of the added ingredients to simmer together for 10 minutes.

Now add –

1 x jar of tomato paste
1 x jar of Basilico pasta sauce
1 x jar of Passata – not for small batch
1 x tin of chopped tomatoes (today I used another jar of passata as we were out) – not for small batch
1 x jar of red peppers pesto – not for small batch

Stir well, then leave the sauce to simmer on a smaller burner for an hour or more, stirring occasionally..

When the sauce is simmered together until it forms an awesome sauce, you can use it however you like.

I will usually prepare this in the morning, have a little sauce over boiled and mashed potato for lunch, and put the rest of the sauce into containers and into the fridge for later use. We would usually have red sauce pasta for dinner that evening. I would also make Fake Lasagne with this sauce, and Ricotta, Spinach and Bacon cannelloni, which will appear here as a recipe at a future time. :)

This week, I’ve completed the posts for episodes 507 and 508 over at Rewatch Breaking Bad, though the posts will not publish until mid-July.

These episodes were the last ones my very excellent work friend got to see. Cancer stole her from us in early 2013, just a few months before season 5b, as they called it, began to air.

Oh, how she loved this show. I think she loved it even more than I did, which is saying a LOT. Sometimes, in the wee hours of the night when we were working together, we would speculate, posit theories, imagine the most insane and crazy storylines, and consider the vastness of the Breaking Bad universe.

We would talk about the show that existed, moments that happened, what our favourite scenes and lines were. The two of us could speak many of the lines out loud from memory. I knew exactly which lines to say to her which would leave her giggling, and she knew which lines to say for me.

I remember one time when the phones were quiet, we spoke for an uninterrupted by phone calls hour, just about the clouds in some scenes, and the weather in Albuquerque, and how it always seemed to put on a show, for the show. We talked about how Albuquerque had become a character of the show and how it gave the show such a unique look.

I also remember we talked about Mark Margolis and how amazing his acting was, because his character Uncle Tio was unable to speak but you saw everything you needed to know in his eyes, and he had this bell that he would ring.

We both loved the character of Mike, especially the scene that began with him shorting out electricity with helium balloons. We talked about a spin off show that could involve him. There had already been some talk about a spin off on the podcasts – which we had both listened to.

We both loved Jesse as a character. We loved where season four had taken his character. We loved his involvement in the major capers of season 5a. We also loved his outfits.

The final eight episodes were so perfect, she would have loved every single minute of them. She would have loved to discuss each episode with me. How much I would have loved to discuss them with her!

How deeply thrilled she would have been to see Better Call Saul, the spin off show that appeared after Breaking Bad ended. She would have particularly loved the Mike Centric episode – Five-O – which will hopefully land Jonathan Banks a nomination for best supporting actor when the Emmy nominations are announced on July 16th, and hopefully he will win his first Emmy award at the 67th Emmy Awards due to be held in September this year.

My friend is greatly missed, by me, and by many others who adored her.

Lots to see here – various ceramic figures two of which I made myself right next to each other on the right hand side, the silver haired lady in the purple glitter gown, and the red haired lady in the green glitter outfit. Multiple fairies of various versions. Plus a Halloween snow globe which I believe Sephy sent to me.

Here we have another Fairy friend, a moonstone Dolphin which I got in Hawaii, another dragon, and a pink sparkly cat which came from a Korean friend of mine.. There is also another Fairy friend hiding at the back there.

This large doll came from the same Korean friend. :)

This large doll I found somewhere in a shop. My parents had a bunch of these dolls which came from Japan and I am trying to start my own collection.

The middle shelf – a couple of glass tealight holders at the very ends of the shelf – an elephant sits next to my very own DeLorean time machine. On the other side is a garden gnome I made myself. In the middle is a somewhat battered but extremely special to me keepsake – a ceramic dog ashtray that belonged to my Grandfather.

The bottom shelf – my Hawaii Domo sits in some glass desk units which belonged to The Other Half’s Mother. The two ceramic cats are from Sephyroth – the ones which were hidden in my new shoes! – a ceramic keepsake holder which has some glitter inside and a special mother of pearl jewellery case.

In future Wednesdays here on the blog, I intend to take a closer look at some of the keepsakes on Wednesdays.

First I should mention that the cabinet itself was purchased several years ago at an imported furniture sale. It is similar in style to my other glass cabinet which we had purchased in Adelaide..

Second I should mention, I did a little photoshop in this next pic because the flash reflected on the wood and it hurt my eyebulbs. I did not wish to inflict same on your eyebulbs. So please excuse my dodgy bucket filling. ;)

At the back is my Take That Mirror – I had all kinds of Take That merchandise – In front on the stand is a ceramic jewellery box which I painted myself. The large blue puffer fish sits in front of my paperweight. There is a pink crystal triangle, another paperweight with fish and coral, a green crystal triangle, a block of glass with a dragon etched inside it which is designed to stand on an LED light stand, and though you can’t see it very well, a metal snake attached to a green crystal.

This is my China themed shelf. It has a special folding Panda screen given to us by my Chinese cousin. In front is a ceramic Buddha that The Other Half made at ceramics, and then some other Buddhas I have collected over the years many of which sat on my work desk in various call centres. They have Feng Shui uses. Also there is a Green Malachite cat which was brought back for me from Africa by my Dad.

On this shelf – Many of my glass snow globes. I don’t know why but the water inside seems to be receeding – they all were completely full when I got them and I can’t find any leaks.. There is also a moon lander bought from Aldi, a ceramic keepsake holder, a ceramic pig figure, and a copper pencil sharpener boat.

And the final shelf – – At the back is my ceramic castle which I made and painted. Also at the back you can see my Gruen Transfer mug, which I won in a competition. In front are some of my glass items including 3 glass tealight holders in green, blue and red, two glass globes which are used in a tealight holder that I’m not using right now, a crystal bell, and my gorgeous cobalt blue and gold glass container. I love cobalt blue things. :)

I made a comment on Ask A Manager a while back.. Part of my comment said –

My thought is – pick up the phone and call to schedule interviews….If you suffer from call reluctance or lost your tongue to a cat, at the very least, TEXT these people.

I had ticked subscribe to comments when I posted so I knew I would receive any replies.. I certainly did not expect very many.. And I went to bed because it was bedtime.

The next morning, I was somewhat shocked to receive a large number of replies and the majority of people were saying they would never text someone to schedule an interview. As the conversation went on, I became aware of a large gap between how Australia does things and how America does things which was deeply surprising to me.

I think I have managed to identify some of the reasons for this gap thanks to the discussion.

Firstly, you can easily tell in Australia if someone gives you a mobile number. The prefix will always be 04XX. In the US, they cannot tell – mobile and cell numbers look identical.

Secondly, it appears that some US plans charge people to receive SMS – I get free unlimited text with my phone plan and I have never heard of anyone being charged to *receive* an SMS here, though I know people sometimes get charged higher SMS fees for sending them to competitions.

Thirdly, it seems from the replies I received that not everyone in the US has a smart phone and many people are still using older style phones. Here in Australia out of all the people I know, maybe two of them have older non smart-phones. It is easy to update your phone here without having to pay any up front fees, you just go on a contract for 12 or 24 months.

Fourthly, some employers in Australia are using SMS to communicate with their employees. There is a system called MessageNet which allows employers to easily set up rostering, sms groups and reminders.

This concept seems complicated so I will give you an actual example – let us say the local Mcdonalds wants to let all their employees know when a shift becomes available. In the old days, a staff member would have to call every staff member and let them know, and ask them if they wanted to work the shift. They would have to leave voicemails if someone did not answer. If you have 60+ casual staff members, calling all of them can be time consuming.

With MessageNet, you can easily and quickly send one SMS to all your staff, saying “Shift available 12/4/15 from 4pm to 10pm call X number to claim this shift” – and within minutes of sending that SMS, it is likely a staff member will call in and claim it. The other possible business uses for SMS are enormous and potentially save time, money, and hassle.

And finally, SMS confirmation has become a big thing in Australia. It started out mostly with banks and online transactions sending confirmation codes to your mobile, but it has not ended there.

I now get many appointment confirmations via SMS. My hairdresser, my doctor, my psychologist, my employment agency.. all of them will send me an SMS on the day before my appointment. I have to reply with Yes to confirm my appointment. This is actually brilliant and something I encourage greatly. I am certain this has cut down hugely on missed appointments and helps businesses to reschedule when someone has to cancel.

I track my prescription medications via a phone app that my pharmacy uses. I find most pharmacies now have one of these apps. Not only does it alert me when I have 7 days left of medicine, but within the app, you can set up a daily reminder to take it.

These days, I even order our pizza via a phone app. Our local wood fired place has an app of their very own, and it is brilliant. I can even order salad at a local healthy food place via an app.

I Am Not A Slave To My Phone –

But even with all these awesome apps and sms notifications, I am *determined* not to be constantly tied to my smart phone. How does one manage this? I try to keep some degrees of separation. Here’s how I roll –

– I don’t use my phone in the car when I am driving. EVER. It only takes a few seconds and you’re dead or you’ve killed someone else. If you do use your phone in the car, please, I am begging you, STOP doing that.

– I don’t have apps like Facebook or Twitter or Instagram installed. I did have Facebook once but I uninstalled it when they updated their messenger app so it would put peoples profile photos on my phone desktop, which was downright spooky and a bridge too far for me.

– I don’t have a lot of games installed on my Samsung Galaxy. I still have my iPhone and that contains my phone games – but that phone does not have a sim card. I find it useful to have degrees of separation between games and phone – this is very awesome for me.

– My phone does not go to my bedroom. It has a home and a charging station next to my recliner. This gives me sleep time free from buzzing and phone noise. It also means when I wake up, I get me time instead of phone time.

– I have a block on my phone between 10:30pm and 8am which turns all noise on my phone to silent without vibration, so there is no way I can hear any phone noises or buzzing from the bedroom.

– I have a camera ability on my phone, but I also have a cute little Panasonic Lumix which I use for photography, so I can keep photography and my phone separated when I want to.

– I deliberately do not have every email account I use hooked up to my phone. I select which email accounts I want to be able to reach me if I am out and about and I can turn them on and off easily.

– The Other Half and I use an app called Kakao Talk to communicate with each other for free. There are other apps you can use for this, too. The major benefit for me is this – messages from him have a very specific tone alert so I know when he is messaging me.

Toxic Relationships

It does worry me that some phone-using people – in particular younger generations of people – seem to be heading down a potentially not great path into a toxic relationship with their smartphone and in some cases their tablet. I’ve been to restaurants where people are sitting there doing stuff on their phones instead of being in the moment with each other. I’ve been to movies where people cannot resist the pull of the phone.

I also saw this article –Trying to Live in the Moment (and Not on the Phone) – after reading it, I decided to install the app Checky. It turns out that I check my phone on average 15-20 times a day. At least 2-5 of those will be replying to messages from The Other Half. One of those will be turning off my medication alarm.

Live In The Moment

I was already thinking about living in the moment for a few different reasons –

– seeing so many photos of the 747-400 coming in to land at Illawarra Airport where almost everyone there has a phone they are holding up, taking either still images or video.

– seeing people at various events using their phones to capture moments which they would never bother to get an actual camera out for.

– seeing people using phones in social situations like restaurants and cinemas.

How do you handle your smart-phone usage?

My dearest and bestest friend in the universe, Sephyroth, has a birthday which was a great day for many years, until 2001 came along. Why 2001, I hear you ask. Well, his birthday happens to be September 11th. So after 2001 the birthday became a bit of a downer day for him instead of the happy occasion it ought to be..

So much so, that at some point I assigned him a totally different birthday. I forget what it was, I think it was sometime in April. I guarantee you he will pop up in the comments and paste in the actual emails or logs of our chat on this subject, because he saves these things foreverz. :)

But this year, it SHOULD BE be a very happy birthday, because September 11th happens to be the release date for a little movie I am super excited to see. It is called Triple 9, and it contains Norman Reedus – better known as Daryl from The Walking Dead – and Aaron Paul – better known as Jesse from Breaking Bad. Plus, a few other randoms, eg Kate Winslet, Woody Harrelson, Chiwetel Ejiofor..

Yo, best you be planning a cinema trip for your next birthday, Sephyroth.

Of course release dates can and do change, I’ll keep an eye on it.

Me personally, I don’t really do birthdays myself, nor do I tend to remember other peoples birthdays. I actually seem to remember other things, eg I have a friend whose birthday is the day after International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Yes, that is a thing and it gets mentioned around the web quite a bit in the lead up to the day, so it is like a little reminder for me.

Update –

Did you guys know that Sephy has a login for my blog? No? Well, now you do. And of course you can guess that Sephyroth happened to log in on Monday, for reasons but that is another post, and he saw this post scheduled and could not help but read it. He then forwarded me the email I sent him, and here tis.

Subject: Happy Non-Birthday

On Sep 11, 2011, at 5:49, Snoskred (snip) wrote:

As I cancelled your birthday and rescheduled it to Feb 18th, today is no longer your birthday, officially.

So Happy Birthday for next Feb 18th, instead. :)

Your new birthday is the anniversary of this –

1977 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden “flight” on top of a Boeing 747.

1979 – Snow falls in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the only time in recorded history.

Your new birthday is also the birthday of – 1968 – Molly Ringwald, American actress

It is also –

Christian Feast Day:
Colmán of Lindisfarne
Flavian of Constantinople
Simeon of Jerusalem (Western Christianity)
February 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Gambia from the United Kingdom in 1965.

Pls to note that on almost everyone’s birthday, something not awesome happened. EG on my birthday –

1896 – The deadliest tsunami in Japan’s history kills more than 22,000 people.

Had that happened in 1996, my birthday would be quite the bummer. :(

Anyway, happy Non-Birthday. And if you don’t like Feb 18th, pick another one, There’s 363 other days you could choose. :)

There has been all kinds of misinformation and bad reporting with this missing AirAsia plane, but I think we have a winner for the most incorrect press report thus far.

Hmm. Looks like a military helicopter to me. The fact that the press gets plane types wrong is something we Aviation Geeks are well used to, but I have never before seen them mistake a helicopter for a plane. This is a new level of wrong.

I have been nice and removed the name and twitter ID of this press person though others may not be so nice.

Some might see this post as a bit petty. While it could certainly be interpreted that way, I want to make the reason I am posting it clear.

When reporting anything, the press should TRY at least to get the things they say correct. When they cannot get something as simple as a helicopter VS a plane right, how can anyone trust the other words they say?

It will take time to find out what has actually happened here. In the meantime, this is my advice to you –

Take any reports re what has happened to this flight as pure speculation. Was it weather, was it X, was it Y, was it Z? We have zero idea and anyone claiming otherwise you should treat with enormous suspicion. The only fact we know presently is that the plane lost contact with Air Traffic Control (ATC) and was no longer to be found on radar.

Ignore reports of the plane being denied to climb to a higher altitude. If the pilot had a reason to climb and he communicated to ATC that it was necessary and urgent, the request would have been allowed even if other traffic had to be re-routed as a result. I have listened to ATC scanners for years. Planes often make requests to ATC that are declined for a multitude of reasons. ATC have a job to do. If an emergency is declared their job is to assist the pilot to get safely on the ground. If an emergency is not declared, then their job is to manage the airspace. A request from a pilot to fly at a certain altitude or track is simply that – a request.

Ignore reports of “wreckage” found until you actually see it with your own eyes. We’ve been here and done this before with MH370. So much “wreckage” was found and none of it turned out to be related to MH370.

If you are looking for actual info, my advice is to forget the general media. They are clueless when it comes to aviation. You can try these sources –

Aviation is difficult at the best of times. When you are taking people up into the air, a place we were never designed to go, there are always risks – as there are risks in anything that we do in life. Things can and do go wrong, people are lost, and that is utterly heartbreaking for their friends and family.

I cannot imagine how the families of MH370 must feel, so many months have passed and still that plane has not been found. I hope for a different outcome with QZ8501. Of course my present hope is that the plane landed somewhere and everyone is ok. The more time that passes, the less likely that hoped for outcome seems. :(

When things do go wrong in aviation, it would be wonderful if the media could report actual facts rather than hours upon hours of endless speculation, just because they have air time to fill.

Head Back To Camp, as Jeff Probst would say on Survivor. I’m feeling very Meh about the whole Christmas thing. I don’t have anything much to say about it. If you are looking for a great Christmas message, I do got something for ya – A Christmas message from (someone who is not) the Queen – that was easily the best Christmas post I’ve read this week. :)

I’m secretly a bit of a Survivor fan, and season 29 ended last week – exactly as it should have.

The Missing had an incredible and perfectly done ending. I expected they would stick the landing and they did not disappoint at all. I think that show was far and away the best tv show seen on air in 2014 – and it has already scored some Golden Globe nominations – one for Best TV movie or Miniseries and also Frances O’Connor picked up a nomination for Best Actress in a Miniseries or TV movie.

Unlike a couple of other TV shows which were utterly disappointing in their ending – I’m looking at you, The Fall season 2, and Homeland..

Sometimes I see Jeff standing next to my TV when shows are airing on it, and sometimes he says exactly that line to me. Right at the end of The Fall episode 6, as the screen went to black and the credits rolled, he was there, saying “I Got Nothing For Ya, Head Back To Camp”.

With the Homeland finale he showed up fairly early on, and I kept saying wait, there is more show to watch, and he kept saying, just trust me, there’s nothing here for ya.

If there is one thing I have learned from watching Survivor, it is that Jeff is always right. :)

Recently we went through our TV folder and deleted some things, added some things, and I wrote a list of shows I have not watched in full yet. This was a great idea considering most of the shows I was watching have now ended their season.

Some of these shows, I have seen a few episodes or even entire seasons – eg The Mentalist, I watched up to season 4, but it has been a while and I think I would prefer to go back to the start and watch it from the beginning. Some of these shows I might not like – I usually give a show 3-4 episodes to grab me and if it doesn’t work by then, I’m out.

Some of these shows I have seen episodes here or there which has made me add it to the list of things I want to watch. So here’s the list I’ll be working on over the next few weeks..

A Young Doctors Notebook, Bates Motel, The Blacklist, Chuck, COPS, Criminal Minds, Deadwood, Drop Dead Diva, Extant, Falling Skies, The Following, Forever, Grays Anatomy, Hannibal, Happy Valley, The Hour, How to make it in America, Justified, The Kill Point, Last Resort, The Leftovers, Luther, Manhattan, The Mentalist, Murder In The First, Mysteries Of Laura, NCIS, Orphan Black, The Pacific, Power, Resurrection, The Thick Of It, Torchwood, Upstairs Downstairs, Wahlburgers, Without A Trace,